Juventus Turin

13.09.2016 SERIE A 2015/2016

Juventus - Chievo Verona 1:1

I have seen "bianco-neri" live twice so far, both on away games: in 2012 versus Atalanta in Bergamo and a year later in the Turin derby. Both had been won 2:0 by Juve who did not leave any shadow of a doubt through an undisputable dominance on the pitch.

Current season could have started hardly worse for the Italian giants: two matches, two defeats and, quite surprisingly, some nervousness sneaked into th Juve's locker room. Despite of three key departures (Tevez for Boca Juniors, Vidal for Bayern Munich, Pirlo for MLS which effectively means quasi retirement) by no means was the squad weakened. First and foremost: Juve retained Paul Pogba although gossips on the new transfer record were all over the place. And on top of that, Mandzukic and Kedira joined the team and both players' merits do not have to be explained to anyone. Plus Dybala who had an extremely succesful season at Palermo along with Cuadrado, still unwanted at Chelsea.

Chievo Verona visited the Juventus stadium on Saturday afternoon, the sensational Serie A leaders. Still, Juve's coach Allegri did not believe the Chievo's potence and decided to keep most of his aces in his sleeve, i.e. on the substitute bench. However as early as in the 5th minute he realised the opponets are a very solid team who did not come to Turin with a request for mercy. Juventus started hitting the wall with their heads and although enjoyed the ball possesion advantage, nothing concrete was coming out of it. So Pogba had to replace somewhat helpless Marchisio and soon Mandzukic and Cuadrado were sent to the battle either. Which was enough for an equaliser scored by Dybala from a penalty after Cuadrado had been fouled. Worth mentioning the guests had scored a goal unrecognised by the referee just few minutes earlier. This way or another, Chievo left a very positive impression in Turin although their chances for championship with a "no names" squad are miserable.

We caught a taxi immediately upon leaving the stadium. The driver, apparently ex gratia, asked for the score and quickly admitted not to be an avid football fan. Instead, he has got a true affection for skiing and tennis. Well, we nodded our heads thus pretending our understanding for this weird philisophy...:)